Jan. 14, 2014

Elder's has long been a fixture on Elliston Place. / George Walker IV / File / The Tennessean

Written by

The Tennessean

The owners of Elder’s Bookstore have purchased a retail building on White Bridge Road with plans to relocate the store there from its home of more than 45 years on Elliston Place.

Randy and Anita Elder, who lay claim to the title of “oldest bookstore in Tennessee,” paid $1.3 million for the 4,109-square-foot former Sleep Outfitters building at 101 White Bridge Road.

The couple plan a remodeling project that will add 1,100 square feet of space to the building. Between spring and summer, they plan to move the bookstore into a portion of the building that faces Brookwood Place and lease the remainder of the space to a tenant.

Randy Elder’s father, Charles Elder, founded the store, known for its rare and used books, 84 years ago where the L&C Tower now stands at 401 Church St. downtown. The store moved to West End Avenue in 1940 and relocated to 2115 Elliston Place in 1968. Charles Elder, a partner in area bookstores since the 1930s, died seven years after retiring and passing Elder’s Bookstore to his son Randy in the late 1990s.

The bookstore deals mostly in rare and collectible titles, including those about Tennessee and Civil War history, antique children’s books, genealogy and family history, plus literary first-edition books.

The latest chapter for Elder’s Bookstore comes as sales of traditional paperback books have taken a hit nationwide, in part because of the Internet and consumers’ growing use of electronic devices such as e-book readers. “What we’re finding is that people are much more interested in antique and old books now” because most of the older titles are not available electronically, Elder said.